ISIS suicide bombers in Libya have reportedly ambushed a convoy of western marines and Libyan troops that included members of the Special Boat Service (SBS) of the United Kingdom Special Forces.
There are reports of some Italian casualties and some British special forces being taken prisoner by ISIS.
The Mirror reports:
Members of the Special Boat Service (SBS) were travelling in a convoy with Italian and Libyan troops when they were targeted by militants, according to an Israeli military intelligence website.
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The attackers drove up to the convoy in vehicles packed with explosives, before ‘surprising’ the foreign servicemen by blowing themselves up, Debka.com reports.
Other fighters then allegedly fired bullets at the British, Italian and Libyan troops, while more suicide bombers ran forward to detonate their own explosives.
They were only stopped when Italian and French warplanes targeted the area, it is reported.
Some Italian marines were apparently killed or wounded in the attack on Wednesday.
Although there is no information on whether any British servicemen were hurt in the incident, some reports claim Western troop members were captured by the Islamic State.
However, Debka.com states: “It is possible that any hostages are from the Libyan National Army, a militia commanded by Gen. Khalifa Haftar, a Libyan who has American citizenship.”
The ambush reportedly occurred as the convoy was traveling toward the ISIS stronghold of Sirte, which is starting to rival the likes of Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq.
The troops had set off from the coastal city of Misrata, and were ‘surprised’ by the ‘high combat skills of the ISIS fighters’, according to the website’s sources.
The British and Italian marines were being accompanied by the Libyan military.
The UK special forces are thought to have been active for months in Libya, where the number of ISIS militants is reported to have doubled in just a year to more than 6,000.
In a statement to the Daily Mail, the Ministry of Defence said it would not confirm nor deny any claims about the country’s special forces activity.
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